This is a project by Carole Turley Voulgaris. The associated GitHub repository is here. Feel free to submit an issue with questions or comments.

Children’s closest schools

The tabs below include maps showing the approximate spatial distribution of Somerville children enrolled in school (kindergarten through 5th grade) based on data from the 2023 5-year sample (2019-2023) of the American Community Survey (see this technical appendix for details). Each small dot represents one student, and the larger dots represent schools. There are some areas where no students appear. These are locations where there K-5 students were found in the American Community Survey between 2019 and 2023, so the estimated number of students in those areas is zero, although there is a margin of error for those estimates, so there could be students living in those areas. A more precise analysis could use actual students addresses, but those locations are not publicly available (and for good reason).

The dots representing students are color-coded to indicate which school a student lives closest to (in terms of walking distance) under each scenario.

Pre-closure

The above map shows the closest school for each student prior to the closure of building at 115 Sycamore St in spring of 2023. At that time, Winter Hill School was the closest school for about 23 percent of all K-5 students living in Somerville and Brown School was the closest for about 9 percent of all Somerville K-5 students.

The city could choose to renovate both the Winter Will and Brown schools at their existing locations, so students’ closest schools would be the same as before the closure of the Winter Hill building at 115 Sycamore St.

Existing

With the closure of the building at 115 Sycamore St and the relocation of Winter Hill School students to the Edgerly Education Center, the closest school for most students who were previously closest to Winter Hill became Argenziano or Healey

Brown closure

This map shows students’ closest schools under any option that involves rebuilding the Winter Hill school on Sycamore Street, leaving the Brown school building vacant and adding capacity at the Kennedy school or at Winter Hill to replace the lost capacity at Brown.

These proposals differ in terms of where capacity would be added, and hence the number of students who would be able to attend their closest school, but they are identical in terms of which school a student would be closest to.

Most students for whom Brown was previously the closest school would be closest to West Somerville or Kennedy under these options.

Trum Field

Another alternative would be to leave both the Winter Hill and Brown school buildings vacant and build a new school at Trum Field. This new school would be the closest school for about 10 percent of all K-5 students in Somerville, including about 21 percent of the students for whom Winter Hill was previously the closest school and about 52 percent of the students from whom Brown was previously the closest school.

Walk time maps

The following maps show illustrate walking times1 to the nearest school that serves students in at least grades kindergarten through fifth grade.2

Pre-closure

The above map illustrates walking distances for students prior to the closure of building at 115 Sycamore St in spring of 2023.

Rebuilding/renovating both Winter Will and Brown schools at their existing locations, would provide the same walking distances as this prior condition, since all schools would be in their original locations.

Existing

This map illustrates walking times for students to walk to the nearest school now, with the Winter Hill School moved to Edgerly. It is worth noting that these are not the walking distances that students experience, but rather the distance to the closest school.

Most Winter Hill students who were moved to Edgerly when the location at 115 Sycamore St closed are presumably not attending their closest school.

Brown closure

This map illustrates walking times to the nearest school under any option that involves rebuilding the Winter Hill school on its current site, leaving the Brown school building vacant and adding capacity at the Kennedy school or at Winter Hill to replace the lost capacity at Brown.

These proposals differ in terms of where capacity would be added, and hence the number of students who would be able to attend their closest school, but they are identical in terms of the distance each student would be from the closest school, even if their closest school is not their assigned school.

Trum Field

This map illustrates walking times to the nearest school under Option 04, which would involve leaving both the Brown school the Winter Hill school at 115 Sycamore St vacant. A new school would be built at Trum field to accommodate the lost capacity from both schools.

Summary statistics

The decision to leave two centrally-located school vacant would have important implications for the time required for Somerville students to walk to school. This is particularly true for students for whom Brown or Winter Hill would otherwise have been the closest school.

Average walks

With the distribution of schools in Somerville prior to the closure of Winter Hill, the average time it would take a K-5 student in Somerville to walk to the nearest school was about 11 minutes. This has increased with the closure of Winter Hill. All of the options under consideration, with the exception of the 01+01A (which would keep all schools at their prior locations), would increase average walking distances relative to the period before Winter Hill closed.

Average walking times for students who are currently closest to Brown or Winter Hill would increase by more than 50 percent in scenarios where their respective schools are left vacant.

10-min walks

Just under 1200 K-5 students in Somerville (about 45 percent of all K-5 students) lived within a ten-minute walk of a school before the closure of Winter Hill. Winter Hill School was the closest school for more than a quarter of all students within ten minutes of a school, and Brown was the closest school for just over ten percent.

Now that the Winter Hill School has closed, only about 20 students for whom the
Winter Hill School at 115 Sycamore St was the closest school live within ten minutes of a school. This number would increase to about 60 students if a new School were built at Trum Field, which is about a fifth of the number who live within 10 minutes of 115 Sycamore St.

A negligible number of students (fewer than ten) for whom Brown is currently the closest school would be able to walk to any school within ten minutes if the Brown school were left vacant and no new school were built. This number would increase to about 45 students if a new school were built at Trum Field.

20-min walks

Prior to the closure of the school at 115 Sycamore St, only about three dozen K-5 students in Somerville lived more than a 20-minute walk from a school serving K-5 students. The closure of Winter Hill School has increased this number by about 270 percent.

  1. Travel times are calculated using the r5r package in R.↩︎

  2. Refer to the technical appendix for details on how the residential locations of students are approximated.↩︎